Strange Fruit

It's almost wedding season, and engaged folks everywhere are in the thick of trying to get their ceremonies and receptions planned for spring. And this year, the festivities will include same-sex couples - some of whom have been waiting decades to tie the knot. But for same-sex couples, wedding planning can be fraught with unexpected awkwardness. Do you "warn" the florist that you're two brides, or two grooms, and ask if they're comfortable? Do you just show up to your catering appointment and hope for the best? And why do all the vendors at the wedding show assume you're sisters or BFFs? An event later this week will celebrate marriage's new look, and help LGBT couples get a handle on preparations. It's called the Love Won wedding show, and it's being billed as Louisville's first LGBT-inclusive wedding planning event. We learn more about it from Heather Yenawine, the director of FEVA, the Fair Event Vendors Alliance. Not only is FEVA hosting a queer-friendly wedding show, but they also provide educ

Comedian Paula Poundstone will be in Louisville on October 17th, bringing her stand-up comedy to the Kentucky Center for the Arts. We spoke with her this week about, among other things, her enduring popularity with gay and lesbian audiences. She said in the 80s, comedians were making a lot of jokes with gay people as the punchline, but she never did. ""I think I just didn't alienate people as much," she explained. But it might also be something about her, personally, that resonates. "My sexual orientation has always been very much in question," she said. "And by the way, with me too!" Paula's son and her oldest daughter are black, and she says it was Trayvon Martin's death that made her realize she'd have to have The Talk with her own son. During our conversation she reflected on how she'll never really be able to share his experience of being black in America. "All I can do is listen to his lies about homework," she chuckles, "and keep feeding him." We a

Fall is in the air, and that means IdeaFestival, and jokes about pumpkins and white people. Luckily, we cover both on this week's show. One of our favorite people, Janelle Monáe, came back to Louisville this week for IdeaFestival, and brought along some folks from her Wondaland Arts Society. We caught up with them in the green room just before they caught their plane out of town (she had to perform at Madison Square Garden a day later - totally no big deal). We talked to the artists about their recent visit to a drag ball in New York, and about "Hellyoutalmbout," the police brutality protest anthem that's been ringing out from rallies and marches all summer long. "We wanted to use it as a vessel, and as a tool," she says of the song. "We're speaking out against the abuse of power because we believe that silence is our enemy, and sound is our weapon." As a team of folks trying to make a difference through the power of radio, we could not agree more! In Juicy Fruit this week, Ameri

Naveen Jain is the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Immunity Project, a non-profit dedicated to developing an HIV vaccine and giving it away for free to anyone who needs it. Jain said it was his father’s illness that brought his attention to the flaws in the pharmaceutical industry. “As we were going through this process with him, and he was seeing countless doctors and specialists along the way,” Jain said. “It became very clear to me that the way we treat people in our society today — in terms of the pharmaceuticals and treatments that we provide for people — are not often actual solutions. Often times they’re Band-Aids. And I think that’s really screwed up.” Jain will be in Louisville this month for IdeaFestival, and he speaks to us this week about his work. We also meet Dr. John Hardin, of Western Kentucky University. Hardin was one of the co-editors of a recently released volume called The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia. Started in 2008 and published by the University Press of Kentucky,

The suspension of Ahmed Mohamed had just hit the headlines when we recorded this week's show. The gifted ninth-grader from Irving, Texas, built a digital clock at home, and brought it to school to show his teachers. And his English teacher assumed it was a bomb. Police were called, and despite Ahmed's unwavering insistence that his invention was a clock, he was suspended from school, arrested, and taken out in handcuffs. "I felt like I was a criminal," he told MSNBC's Chris Hayes. "I felt like I was a terrorist." Since our time in the studio, public support for Ahmed has been swift and abundant, much of it bearing the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed. He's been invited to visit MIT, the Mars Rover project, Facebook, and even the White House. Many kids of color get an abrupt and ugly education in racism the first time they are profiled. It happened to Ahmed this week, and it happens to young black men who are hassled (or worse) by police and other authority figures. But since African-American studi

“When the Negroes were freed and the whole South was convinced of the impossibility of free Negro labor, the first and almost universal device was to use the courts as a means of reenslaving the blacks. It was not then a question of crime, but rather one of color, that settled a man’s conviction on almost any charge. Thus Negroes came to look upon courts as instruments of injustice and oppression, and upon those convicted in them as martyrs and victims.”--W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903) That's how philosophy professor Dr. Brady Heiner opens his article, The Procedural Entrapment of Mass Incarceration:Prosecution, Race, and the Unfinished Project of American Abolition. The passage from 1903 seems eerily informed by today's mass incarceration, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the over-policing of black neighborhoods. Dr. Brady HeinerUniversity of California Fullerton Dr. Brady Heiner We've talked before about how African Americans and Latinos and over-represented in the prison population, and th

Poet and activist Lance Newman joins us for Juicy Fruit this week, where some stories from this week lead to a broader discussion of violence against black Americans. We talk about the through line of retribution against African-Americans who are perceived as not knowing their place. Emmett Till, Malcolm X's father Earl Little, lynchings, the massacre in Rosewood, Florida--all were incidents of white supremacist violence that went well beyond just murder. (We do describe the details of some of those killings on the show this week, so if you can't listen to that, you'll want to skip from minute 7 to minute 17 of the show.) The over-the-top nature of how the murders were carried out and what was done to the bodies was intended to terrorize other black people and let them know they could be next. Dr. Story draws a comparison between historical violence to today's police shootings to point out that the need for a Black Lives Matter movement goes far beyond just the events of the past few years. And our colleague

Three Fairness leaders were arrested Thursday morning at the Kentucky Farm Bureau's Ham Breakfast & Auction. Fairness and ACLU folks were at the event in silent protest of anti-LGBT Kentucky Farm Bureau policies, as they do every year. Friends to the show Chris Hartman, Carla Wallace, and Sonja DeVries were lead out of the event in handcuffs and have been charged with failure to disperse (with an extra change of disorderly conduct for Chris). Amber Duke from the Kentucky ACLU was there, and she stopped by our studio later that afternoon to tell us what happened. This story is still developing, because Chris & friends are considering filing suit against the Kentucky State Police. Keep an eye on our twitter and facebook and we'll keep you posted as things progress. Our other guest this week is Louisville-based fashion designer Frances Lewis. Her work will be featured in an October 16 event called Borrowed Time: A Fall Fashion Experience. Since we had a fashion designer at the mic, and since it's that ti

We've always been proud of how cutting-edge Louisville is on LGBT rights issues (and can often be overheard bragging that our Fairness law included transgender protections even before New York's did). But what about the rest of Kentucky? We went to the Rural LGBT Summit this month in Lexington to find out. The USDA has been holding these summits throughout the country, both to shine a light on issues faced by rural LGBT Americans, and to make sure those same folks know about the assistance they can get from the USDA. We can't deny our status as city slickers (though we temporarily daydreamed about gay farmers), so the summit was a great learning opportunity for #TeamStrangeFruit. Jai and Doc co-hosted a panel featuring folks who are "champions of change" in their communities, and we bring you an excerpt of that conversation in this week's show. Stay tuned to our Soundcloud page for the whole thing. Also in this week's show, we go about as far from rural as you can get: Broadway, in New York City, wh

It's back to school time in our part of the country, and this week we're full of nostalgia about our favorite parts of going back to school (cute Trapper Keepers and lunchboxes, of course!). We also bring you the story of Courtney Holmes, a barber in Dubuque, Iowa who's making back to school a little easier for low-income families. He's offering free trims to kids with just one stipulation: They have to read to him while he cuts their hair. Doc is going back to school this month too, returning after her sabbatical to her position at the University of Louisville. UofL was recently named the most LGBT-friendly college in the South. We love the atmosphere of acceptance on campus, but wonder why coverage never seems to include the student activists and professors who make the school welcoming for LGBTQ students of color. And Kelly Osbourne, last mentioned here when Giulia Rancic said Zendaya's dreads probably smelled like patchouli and weed, is back in our newsfeeds this week. She was co-hosting The View, when th

Suit designer Leon Wu sees a person's first suit as a milestone. "Historically, a father will bring in his son," Wu says. "It's like a coming of age sort of thing." But what about a person who didn't grow up as a boy? Wu can relate: "Ever since I was five I would envision myself as a more masculine person," he explains. "Growing up I was happy getting my older brother's hand-me-downs. I didn't need to go buy any 'female' clothes." Wu founded Sharpe Suiting, a clothing company catering to masculine-of-center folks who want to look dapper in suits custom-tailored to every type of body. He joins us this week to talk about their work, and what it's like to work with transmasculine populations. "Whenever somebody transitions or they decide to adopt a certain type of gender representation," Wu explains, "it is in a sense like another puberty." Also this week, we meet Louisville Public Media's new executive editor, Stephen George. We chat about diversity in

Last week in Cleveland, activists from across the country came together for the Movement for Black Lives Convening. Panels and breakout groups talked about police violence, LGBTQ inclusivity, self-care, labor organization, and all sorts of topics relevant to the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Dr. Britney Cooper was there, and two incidents stand out in her mind: First, conveners were at a nightclub when one of them - a trans man - was forcibly removed from the men's restroom. En masse, attendees exited the club in protest and solidarity. They stood outside the establishment chanting, singing freedom songs, and documenting the whole thing under #ShutItDown. Then, on the last day of the conference, they witnessed a 14-year-old black boy being arrested for intoxication. Activists surrounded the police cruiser in protest, and some were pepper sprayed by a Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority police officer. After negotiation between organizers and officers, the young man was released into his mother's custod

Doc, Jai, and guest Joe Dunman weigh in on the Nicki/Taylor twitter beef surrounding the VMA nominations... and the perpetual narrative of white woman victimhood. And Geena Davis. (Our full episode with Dunman is here: http://strangefruitpod.org/news-round-up-with-marriage-equality-attorney-joe-dunman/)

Remember that whole Supreme Court marriage equality thing a couple weeks ago? It was kind of a big deal? Well one of the attorneys, Joe Dunman, joins us this week for a news roundup, and to give us the latest information on two Kentucky county clerks who have refused to issue marriage licenses. Dunman, who is a civil rights attorney and co-host of the Parade of Horribles legal podcast, also weighs in on the death of Sandra Bland in police custody, and how police interactions are different for white people. We also talk about the case of local prosecutor Karl Price, who lost his job after making racist remarks in legal documents and in court. Price was given a chance to apologize, and issued a classic faux-pology—which was not good enough for his employer, Jefferson County Attorney Mike O'Connell.

Many of Louisville's activist leaders got their start marching behind the same man: Reverend Louis Coleman. Now his life's work is being portrayed in a brand-new musical called "Buster," written by Larry Muhammad and directed by William P. Bradford II. They both stopped by the studio this week to talk about the project, which opens this Thursday and runs through July 26. In Juicy Fruit, we talk about the "Respond with Love" campaign, started by Muslim groups to raise money to rebuild Black Churches recently destroyed by fires in the South. The effort, spearheaded by the Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative and the Arab American Association of New York, defies the widely-held idea of animosity between Muslims and Christians. We also talk about recent data showing that Latino/as now outnumber white people in California. And we almost can't believe it, but Raven-Symone did something good this week. She went head-to-head with Candace Cameron Bure when The View discussed the bakery in Oregon who re

Dr. Burt Ashe always saw himself as a sort of a renegade. Edgy. Bohemian. But no one else seemed to agree. "The way that I presented to the world was completely, just amazingly, conventional," he says. So he decided to change his look. "I thought maybe that me growing dreadlocks might be a kind of pathway to allow what was inside to be presented outside." In doing so, he learned about all the presumptions the world projects onto black people with 'locked hair. Jai had 'locks for 7 years, and like Ashe, he was often asked if he was Jamaican. His book, "Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles," explores the history of dreadlocks, and details his own relationship with the look. The natural hair movement continues to gain steam with black women, but what about men? Ashe says he got some interesting responses from them while working on the book. Like, "It's just hair man you're overthinking this," and, "Dude, your relationship with your hair is a little too...." "It'

Friday was a historic day for the USA, and we spent it experiencing and documenting some of the sights and sounds of all the Decision Day activities here in Louisville! On this week's show, we share those sounds with you. Full Story: http://strangefruitpod.org/marriage-equality-at-last-sights-sounds-from-decision-day/

As we celebrate Juneteenth this weekend, it's with the impossible-to-ignore knowledge of how much work the United States still has to do to achieve safety and true equality for all its citizens. We recorded this show before a white supremacist named Dylann Roof opened fire on a bible study group at historically black Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, SC. It was before mainstream media called him a lone wolf and assumed he was mentally ill. It was before Roof's roommate said he'd been planning the attack for six months, but no one tried to stop him. It was before Roof was taken into custody, alive and unharmed, at times not even wearing handcuffs. It was before a 5-year-old girl played dead to survive the massacre. It was before leaders publicly said we would probably never know the reason for the attack—despite the fact that Roof was very clear he had gone to the church "to kill black people." It was also before the president of Louisville's Fraternal Order of Police wrote a menacing letter to &q

Happy Pride Month, Fruitcakes! This week we speak with mixed media artists Rahel and SCZ, who are part of a collective called Mother Tongue Techniques. Their group is in San Francisco this weekend presenting "Y’all Come Back: Stories of Queer Southern Migration." They talk about their work, and why it's important to lift up the stories of queer folks and people of color in the south. The actions of (former) Officer Eric Casebolt at a pool party in McKinney, Texas have raised conversations all over the country about who is presumed to be a criminal. Casebolt has since resigned, but questions remain about why the police were called in the first place, why he reacted the way he did to teenagers who weren't resisting, and the long legacy of segregation in swimming pools. Also this week, we talk about a new show Jaison loves called The Prancing Elites. The Oxygen Network's docu-series follows an African-American, gay and non-gender conforming dance team. They perform within the tradition of J-Setting - a

A battle of the generations broke out when, on a recent episode, we talked about Janet Jackson's upcoming album and tour! Flyy Sexuality TV's Kendra Elise Anderson called the singer all washed up, scandalizing Jaison, and our other guest, actor Billy Flood. We thought we were going to have to get out the smelling salts. This funny segment didn't make the final cut of the show, but we couldn't resist sharing it as a slice of bonus fruit! What do you think, Fruitcakes? More info on the album & tour here: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/janet-jackson-promises-new-album-new-world-tour-in-2015-20150516 ______________________________________________ Support Strange Fruit: https://www.patreon.com/StrangeFruit